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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rupert1 who wrote (59005)	4/20/1999 7:35:00 PM
From: rupert1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Verbatim: Part 2 Part 2 texas_zippy Apr 20 1999 3:56PM EDT Mr. Doyle: I consider ... it a privilege and frankly an honor to be asked to participate in the leadership of this great company. I'm relatively new to the industry. I was on the Digital board, as many of you know. But mine is a short experience. What I do have a lot of experience in is dealing with how do you run a large, complex multinational company. And I think one of the problems that we're going to have to face into and understand is that size does not mean slow.... Every organization that grows – over time, it grows in complexity, some of it necessary, some of it very unnecessary – [tends to get slower]. So I think it's going to be important for us to get at anything that slows us down. I'm a great believer that with speed and simplicity and self-confidence, organizations can move every bit as quickly when they're large as when they were small. The second point I would make [addresses] ... some questions about both the executive office and the chief executive office. I've lived in one and worked in one. It can move very quickly. It has the advantage that you don't have to wait around for a single executive to make every decision. And when you get as big as we are and as diverse as we are in both marketplace and in operations, you need that. There are going to be times when one person simply has to be in too many places. Hopefully, we'll solve that by one or the other of us always being available for any decision you need and when you need it. Mr. Rosen: Thank you. I don't know if you mentioned that this large company where you were executive vice president was General Electric, which is a rather large company, a rather complex company – and yet it's had a rather spectacular growth record over the years. Mr. Doyle: I spent years 17 years working directly for Jack Welch…. Mr. Rosen: Many of you know Ted from the "Lessons in Leadership." Ted has been the longest-standing board member of Compaq, other than me. He joined the board in 1986, [and has] been a tremendous contributor to the board. He has spent his career in the financial services industry and will bring that expertise into the Office of the Chief Executive. Ted. Mr. Enloe: ... I think I'm more fortunate than any other Compaq director. I've had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with our people through the "Lessons in Leadership" program at the Harvard and London business schools... As I would talk to you ... you'd say "Well, what does the board worry about?" And I'd say "We worry about the same things that y'all are worried about." And I'd hear [employees speak] in these sessions. But more than anything else, I think we've got an absolutely wonderful group of people here and a good team. And our focus is going to be – you're going to hear this over and over and over – is to speed [up the] decision-marking process in this company, and hopefully, by quick changes – because we're not going to be caretakers – empower all of you to be more effective with your teams in the future. So I'm excited to be here.... As I look out in this room, I see an awful lot of familiar faces that I've spent some really quality time with, whether it's Scott or Mary or Gary or a number of you. And I'm looking forward to renewing that. And I want to really ask you to work with us. Because we're no stronger than the extent that we can enable you to make this $40 billion company more effective. We've got an awful lot of assets in place – a wonderful portfolio of technology – but it's a matter of messaging that, making it clearer; we've probably got a little tweaking to do in that area.... We need your help. And we're not from the government here to help you, but we're all in this together. So let's get with it and go back to work.

To: rupert1 who wrote (59005)	4/20/1999 9:12:00 PM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

Victor - There are some fascinating bits of information in this transcript. Some things that caught my attention - Frank Doyle was in the "office of the CEO" with Jack Welch at GE. Welch, as you probably know, was known as "neutron Jack" because it was said that after he visited a site, the buildings were untouched but all of the people were gone. Doyle obviously has the experience to take on this current role, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him look hard at some of the staffing issues that EP was so slow to address. Enloe was a part of the "lessons in leadership" seminars. This whole section confused me. I found a number of references on the web but none that seemed to match. Then I got the scoop from a friend at CPQ - this program was started about a year ago and all of the VP staff had to attend at one time or another. It is a week-long intensive seminar at Harvard. The interesting part was that at each session Enloe met with the participants for several hours and discussed their jobs, what they thought of their management and organization, and what was in the way of succeeding in their objectives. This strikes me as an insightful way for the BOD to get "down and dirty" unfiltered opinion about what's happening in the trenches, and was probably key to their ability to understand what needs fixing. This person also told me that when Ben made the comment about relaxed attire, he and the others on stage proceeded to toss their coats, ties and business shirts, under which were casual clothing.